MENTAL TRAPS - Part 1: Conformism

Conformism is not cataloged as an illness, but it is a sickly personality trait pulverized in all societies, it suffocates our abilities, limits skills, and blocks some more functions of intelligence.

There are mental traps built by ourselves unconsciously and secretly by the system we are inserted in throughout the process of our human personality formation. No human being is free from these traps. Awareness in order to recognize them and being humble enough to assume them are fundamental keys to overcome them. I decided to make a post series about this subject, starting with conformism which is the one that has been disturbing me for a few days. I consider conformism to be one of these mental traps that every human will end up falling into at least in some moment of his or her life.

After watching Black Mirror and Matrix in the same week, I've been spending the last days thinking about conformism and how it affects our society so deeply. For me it is the fuel that keeps our society flying in auto pilot, accepting everything as it is, doing what is expected, receiving information without questioning.

CONFORMISM

Conformism is the mental trap that makes people not respond to adversity in life, passively accepting difficulties and circumstances. It means the behavior or tendency to accept an unwanted situation. To be a conformist is to accept, without discussing or questioning, norms or preestablished values. Conformism is not cataloged as an illness, but it is a sickly personality trait pulverized in all societies, it suffocates our abilities, limits skills, and blocks some more functions of intelligence. Some conformists live on the surface, preventing himself from fighting for his ideals, investing in his projects, being an active participant in his own story, in such a way that he finds difficulty in assuming his responsibility as a transforming agent of the world, at least of his own world.

People feel comfortable by being conformists because it can bring them a feeling of complacency since it allows them to accept and enjoy what happens in their daily lives and prevent them from living in constant lamentation of what they can not change. On the other hand, there's the risk of limiting their lives, since they can accommodate and resign themselves to what they can change and with which they are not satisfied.

Clearly, the way we deal with conformism is also influenced by our social environment. The reasons that lead a person to conform are the same reasons that make them part of groups: The need to be accepted; The need to interact with others; The need to do so in order to make sense. Conformism serves as a mechanism to social interactions, so nonconformity has costs in terms of the integration and meaning of behavior. In other words, an information that is contradictory to the dominant group's point of view tends to be ignored, unapproved or minimized. Pressure is exerted on the members of the group to conform themselves to the point of view of the majority, although the pressures may be relatively subtle. That's the kind of conformity that most disturbs me because it's the one that causes more consequences in our society. We don't like to raise questionings about how we think and who we are. We like to be blended in the mainstream. It's part of our nature the need to belong to something so conformism in a way is almost a defense mechanism.

CONFORMISM SUFFOCATES OUR POTENTIALS

If a student is not a conformist and has poor performance in school, he will thrive to change his situation, he'll react, debate ideas, improve concentration, devote more time and energy to turn the game and overcome the situation as Einstein who was not a bright student in the early years of school. But if he's a conformist, he will use the opportunity to create beliefs that will imprison him for the rest of his life. He'll believe in being incapable, limited, intellectually inferior to his colleagues.

Can you imagine how many millions of young people are forming at this moment traumatic windows that annihilate their ability to thrive, to adventure, and develop self-esteem? Some people, because they were abandoned by their loved ones will never develop self-confidence. Others who lost their jobs once or twice will never believe in themselves, they will just declare their incapability and suffocate their potential.

No one can limit another human being more than himself. We label ourselves and allow ourselves to be labeled. Some people are always self-imprisoned, thinking that they will be depressive, phobic, obsessive forever, not desperately struggling for their mental health. They don't realize that they are above all human complexities and because of this they can develop the ability to protect their emotions, manage thoughts, filter stressful situations.

KINGS OF EXCUSES

Conformists are the kings of excuses. They always have justifications for not acting, not exercising their intellect. They rarely doubt what controls them. Some seem detached from prejudices, but in reality are deeply attached to their narrow view of life. Some seem detached from money, condemn materialism, but in the back of their minds love it silently. They generally say that everything is fine and don't assume their real difficulties, do not ask for help, nor train themselves to take risks. They are afraid of being criticized, booed, confronted.

HOW TO OVERCOME IT

The truth is that we are all conformist to some extent. No one is immune to it. Therefore, it would be convenient to understand what often leads us to conformism, and to discover if it is for fear, relaxation, cowardice, avoidance of conflicts or resignation, acknowledging is the first step to overcome it. When we overcome fears or resignation and admit the possibility of having something better than we have, there will be no reason for harmful conformity. Then it will be time to reflect and say if it is worthwhile to go ahead, without being conformed, seeking more paths, more options, more opportunities, since nothing limits us.

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Sources:
Augusto Cury, O Código da Inteligencia, Sextante, 2008
http://thesunjar.com/sobre-aceitacao-e-conformismo/
http://www.rhportal.com.br/artigos-rh/sndrome-do-conformismo/

Image Source: Pixabay